Court files indicate Johansson had his wife committed to a psychiatric ward in 1961, and doctors placed her on antipsychotics. No, Dorothea Puente is no longer alive as of 2022 as she died on March 27th, 2011. She answers with a look of mild reproach that pulls taut her soft fist of a face. [10] According to investigators, most of her victims had been drugged until they overdosed; Puente then wrapped them in bed-sheets and plastic lining before dragging them to open pits in the backyard for burial. Her escape intensified interest in a lurid tale that for a time made Sacramento the center of the media universe. (One woman later discovered checks and jewelry missing from her home; her case played a part in Puentes 1982 arrest on theft charges.) I didnt need to kill anyone. Puente cashed in the Social Security checks of the elderly and disabled boarders living in her house. The wanted bulletin for Dorothea Puente. Peter Vlautin addressed the jurors in confidential tones, contrasting with O'Mara's shouting: We are here today to determine one thing: What is the value of Dorothea Puente's life? High-profile cases dotted his career, including those of convicted mass murderer Morris Solomon and the Unabomber. In any case, after more than 20 years behind bars, and despite the withering of her features, she retains a physical vitality and a fondness for cosmetic excess. Her goodwill earned her the honorific title la doctora and flattering write-ups in local Spanish publications. Working in my yard.. They all know who I am, she says. I started working her, Cabrera says, but all along, she was working me. But in truth, I approach this task without optimism, anticipating that our meeting will stick to the pattern of previous visits. Artifacts from the Dorothea Puente case splay out before him: a faded article published in a local Spanish newspaper with a black and white photo of a younger Puente; a pair of her mug shots, blue eyes dimmed and weary in both; a prescription label in her name for diazepam, a tranquilizer sold as Valium; the original wanted bulletin from Nov. 12, 1988, the day she went on the lam. But Puente has lodged in his psyche as the rarest predator he confronted: in age, gender and disposition, she inhabits an extremely narrow strata of serial killers. She tends to wear thick violet eye shadow and pink lipstick, both of a hue common to Toulouse-Lautrec paintings, and her body lotion of choice, Victorias Secret Love Spell, gives her the subtle bouquet of cherry blossoms. Then working as an in-home caregiver, Puente displayed an odd obsession with her own health, lamenting to clients and caseworkers alike that she suffered from cancer. Her lawyers argued that she might be a thief, but not a murderer. The forensic psychiatrist, assigned to evaluate the alleged serial killer as her case proceeded toward trial, would spend 12 hours talking with her over the next four years. The serial killer shuffles into the room with a chickens hitched gait. & Brucato, Gary, Ph.D., The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books), pp. But the jury had a difficult time believe the matronly grandmother was capable of carrying out such menacing crimes. Hes the brother of Ingemar Johansson, you know, she says, referring to the late heavyweight boxing champ. If she had been held accountable for murdering my mother, Clausen says, then maybe there wouldnt have been any other victims.. She steams the tamales in plastic bags placed in a pan of water warmed with two electric immersion coils. At the same time, they agreed she had an evil side brought on by the stress of caring for her down-and-out tenants. We hold each others stare. On her fourth day as a fugitive, she dropped by a dive bar near the motel, introducing herself as Donna Johansson to a retired carpenter named Charles Willgues. Her bedroom was on the second floor. Why would I waste all my time to get these people cleaned up, make sure they have no diseases, get all their affairs in order if I was going to kill them?. That is a human quality that deserves to be preserved. She marks much of the day reading mind-candy fictionshes a fan of John Grisham and Dan Brownand watching TV; her favorite prime-time shows include CSI, Criminal Minds and Cold Case. Puente was convicted of three of the murders, although the jury could not agree on the other six. George Deukmejian and Bishop Francis Quinn decorated her home at 1426 F Street But setting aside such fleeting charity-event encounters, her stories hew closer to fable than fact. The boarding house at 1426 F Street in Sacramento was included in the 2013 home tour held by the Sacramento Old City Association. While there, doctors diagnosed her as a pathological liar with an unstable personality. Charged with a total of nine murders, Puente was flown back to Sacramento. Six more corpses would follow, but Puente was still on the run. Betty Palmer, 78. "Someone. When we discuss her health or the books she reads, when she makes a rare inquiry about my job or background, the conversation tracks as normal, even mundane. Yet for all the local, national and international coverage of the bizarre case in ensuing years, the public heard virtually nothing from its main character. Dorothea Puente was a convicted serial killer who ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California in the 1980s. Some play Scrabble, Sorry! Dorothea Puente's reign of terror began in 1982 when her friend, Ruth Monroe, was found dead in a boarding house Puente was running at that time. When we later part, Puente disappears through the gray metal door at the back of the hall. She also suffered a miscarriage. I dont want to be a burden on anyone.. (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives), Dorfman drew up Puentes will years agoI dont know if its any good anymore; shes probably given away stuff she doesnt [even] ownand still receives Christmas cards from her. That I can die peacefully in my sleep without being sick or being a cripple. On Nov. 11, 1988, acting on the concerns of a social worker looking for a client who had disappeared, homicide detectives dropped by the mans last known address: a boardinghouse for derelicts and the mentally ill that Puente operated at 1426 F Street, within a mile of the Hall of Justice and the Capitol. After learning about the murders inside Dorothea Puentes house, read about the serial killer known as the Angel of Death. For her and the others, one factor in particular undercut Puentes claim of innocence. Infamous serial murderer . Puente claims she spent time in the 70s with California governors Pat Brown, Jerry Brown and Ronald Reagan. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) Throughout the 1980s, as many as nine deaths in Sacramento were investigated as being connected to Dorothea Puente. Well regarded for taking in substance abusers and the homeless, she had earned respect in political circles for her charity work. At the time of her 1988 arrest on murder charges, photos of Puente with Jerry Brown, former California Gov. "You have heard of the despair which was the foundation of her life, the anger and resentmentIf anyone in the jury room tells you it was not that bad, ask them would you want that to happen to yourself? Driven by routine, Puente rises by 4:30 a.m. most days, long before her seven cellmates. Puente was supposed to stick around to serve out her probation, but in a sign of things to come she skipped town instead. A person like her, the retired sergeant says, theres no forgetting. (Photo by Jeremy Sykes). Season 1 Episode 2 - Videos 1:11 Preview Dorothea Puente Runs From Police Her narrow lips, pinched and lined at the corners, curl slightly upward. But 26 years after her conviction - and seven years after her death - a man who claims to Puente's grandson, William Harder, has stepped forward to reaffirm his grandmother's claim that she wasn't always bad. 'Executing Puente would be like executing your grandmother', one juror is reported to have said in response to the death sentence looming over the defendant at the time. She gasped at sight of the remains, hands bracketing her cheeks. In 2004, she released a cookbook titled Cooking with a . I watch as she pushes away the empty plastic container of fried chicken strips and french fries that she finished eating earlier. A stream of people tour Dorothea Puente's former home on Sept. 15, 2013. The two would continue to have a turbulent relationship, and Gray filed a restraining order in 1975. As jury foreman Mike Esplin recalls, the man simply said, Thats all Im going to give. Puentes composure cracked after the last verdict was read. Her statement hangs between us. They appealed to authorities to reexamine their mothers death, a probe that ended with investigators upholding the suicide ruling. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. I wait for her to speak. She has sent more than 15 letters and postcards in the months since I first wrote to her. He speculates that running a boardinghouse began for her as a humane endeavor rooted in a desire to undo painful childhood memories. I was on stage when the girl next to me broke her heel and bumped into me. The discovery prompted Cabrera to summon Puente to the backyard. Moise alerted police, who went to the boarding house. But their marriage was brief only three years and hinted at trouble beneath the surface. McFaul split from his young wife in 1948. Grandson of killer granny Dorothea Puente, who laced cakes with sleeping pills and then smothered them at her California boarding house, reveals how he shared a 'real connection' with her and . Years later, her granddaughter visits the spot. As the search expanded, cabin fever seized Puente. She gave them clothing, she gave them food. Removed from her violent crimes, it actually makes perfect sense to use Puente's image on a cookbook, as she has the perfect visage of a kind old lady who probably knows a secret recipe or two that her tenants all would . After sixteen months, the couple separated, with Gray citing domestic abuse. When the police arrived, Puente told them that Monroe had been depressed due to her husbands terminal illness. This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 18:08. Her cancer story, on the other hand, sounds consistent with her peculiar, decades-long charade of claiming to suffer from the disease in a ploy to gain sympathy. As it happened, her shovel was used to dig the hole that yielded a human leg bone, a decomposed foot inside a dark dress shoe and what looked like pieces of tattered fabric that in fact were rotting flesh. I wondered how the last two decades had changed her, how she had endured. Puente had already been convicted and executed in the media, and the attorneys understood the long odds of winning in court. Newspapers dubbed Puente the "Death House Landlady". Others disparaged the closet alcoholic who on occasion punctuated roof-raising, cuss-filled tirades with a piece of furniture heaved down the stairs.

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